With record-breaking inflation around the world, funeral homes Willoughby Hills, OH can get quite expensive – especially if the loved one died a sudden or unexpected death. Taking care of all the funeral arrangements within a short period can be a little too much for many middle-class families.
Many people don’t prepare or set aside money to cover this expense, leaving the whole burden for the left ones. Many families, resort to funeral fundraising to give the last sendoff to the deceased.
What is Funeral Crowdfunding
If you use social media, you are probably already familiar with the term ‘Funeral Crowdfunding.’ In simple terms, crowdfunding pertains to the donation of money by the general public to support a family bear the expenses of funeral services.
Even though funeral crowdfunding is a fast-expanding industry and helps needy families, it has some major downsides. Below is a short list of some of the problems you might face when setting up crowdfunding for the funeral expense of a loved one:
1. Taxation Issues
Donations gathered under funeral crowdfunding are considered gifts and don’t fall under the ambit of taxation. But some donations that found national attention can reach millions of dollars and catch the attention of the IRS.
That’s why crowdfunding websites are mandated to inform the IRS if donations for a funeral exceed $20,000 or get more than 200 contributors. And unsurprisingly, the administrator of the campaign can get a big tax notice and face legal complications.
2. You May Not Get Enough Funds
Since burial funerals can easily cost thousands of dollars, any fundraising campaigns fail to drum up enough money to bear the expenses.
It can be even tough moments for the bereaved if the campaign earns half or even less expenditure as they have to arrange for the remainder of funds within a short bracket of time.
3. Beware of Funeral Homes’ Ripping Customers Off
Funeral homes often take advantage of grieving customers and charge exorbitant prices for their services. If a campaign manages to earn sufficient funds, it encourages funeral homes to upsell services. That is, they charge overpriced services to match the donations.
4. The Whole Funeral Crowdfunding Story Might be Fake
There is no way of knowing if a story on social media is true and if money is going to the bereaved family. Many families have also been found to lie about the total funds collected and keep apportion of the funds as profit.
The ease of setting up a fundraising campaign coupled with a lax procedure to authenticate its veracity compels crooks to initiate a fake campaign and solicit money out of people’s pockets.
These funds have an equal probability of being misused. And there’s no brainer that most of these campaigns fail to achieve the desired target.
All these points prove that it’s best to preplan your funeral service and start saving for it not tomorrow but today. This will save your family from a lot of hassles when the time for funeral homes Willoughby Hills, OH, comes.